How do I go about writing an article?

[twfleger]

I've never done that...but I keep reading about how great it is to use as free advertising.

Help?

Thanks!

[Audrey]

An article is about 300-700 words. It's sharing information. You homeschool, so start there. What can you share about homeschooling that would be helpful to others? Here's a few thought starters from someone who has never home schooled:

1. how do you choose curriculum?
2. are all programs the same?
3. what are the benefits of homeschooling?
4. how do you meet your children's social needs when you homeschool?
5. if you use outside teachers, how do you find a good teacher?

Can you take each of those topics and write 300-500 words about it? If so, you've got an article. Articles tend to focus on one thought or one idea.

Here's an article I wrote about article marketing:

Can Article Marketing Help Your Direct Sales Business?

One of the most frequent questions I am asked is “how can I advertise for free?” I have never supported methods such as free classifieds. Nobody reads this. If you look, thousands of folks come and post an ad and never read a thing.

I am a very strong supporter of article writing. Article writing allows you to determine exactly what keywords you are targeting and to get very targeted visitors to your site.

I would rather see someone write 3 articles per week versus placing 100 free classified ads in a week.

If you sell children’s toys or children’s books, write parenting articles. Those who read the articles are the very people who are buying toys. If you sell dietary supplements, write health and wellness articles. Again, those who read your articles are going to be people looking for the very product you offer. If you sell make up and skin care, write articles about fashion and beauty.

Who do you want to visit your site? You want potential customers and potential new sales distributors to visit your site. So, how can you make sure that those coming to your site want what you are offering? Write about the topics that relate to what you are selling. Those who search for your articles or find your articles through a keyword search are interested in what you are offering. Parents need toys. When you write about parenting, your audience is the very people who just might buy from you.

Choose a few keywords or keyword phrases that your potential customers might be searching for. Now write about them. Become an expert writer in your field. Write articles that solve every potential problem or question someone might ask you.

Article writing is the best method of free advertising I’ve ever found. Try it. See if you don’t see increased hits to your website that I hope will lead to sales for you.

****
Audrey Okaneko has been working at home since 1983. She can be reached at audreyoka@cox.net or visited at http://www.recipe-barn.com

[twfleger]

won't make any sales with my marketing, will it?

Do you know what I mean?

Thanks for helping!

[lisamommy]

I have been trying to find different ways to market both my businesses, I might just try the article writing thing. Just not sure how great of a writer I can become. Will definitley try it though. Thanks

[twfleger]

I didn't read your whole post to me...duh! :rolleyes:

Thanks for the advice!

[Audrey]

won't make any sales with my marketing, will it?

Do you know what I mean?

Thanks for helping!

I'm not sure what you mean?

[twfleger]

What I had said was that I didn't know how writing about homeschooling would help me make sales with my businesses...because the subjects aren't related.

Thanks!

[Audrey]

Well, I clicked both links in your signature to see what you sell, and I'm still not sure what you sell. I did see the word marketing on one site and heard the word marketing on the other. Can you write about marketing?

[Audrey]

Actually, affiliate links are not accepted in any of the large article databases.

[SitterMom]

The more you write, the better you get at it.

:)

[JennyW]

Which sites would you recommend for posting articles? I've looked around, and parenting doesn't seem to be a really hot topic on the sites I checked... and parenting would be what I'd write about.

[lisamommy]

I would try submitting an article to associated content (http://www.associatedcontent.com/join.html?refer=28572). They will pay you for it too. Their should be an category like parenting or family there for you to submit it under.

[TRamsey]

Jennifer ~

ISnare.com is another great way to get your articles out there, they offer free and fee based article distribution. And the fee based is very reasonable.

[Audrey]

Why pay a fee?

[clennon]

Hi,
I am a member of a Funded Sponsoring Franchise and in our Internet Marketing Success Guide we have a portion that teaches us how to
write and post our articles.

They have provided us with this great directory site, it is called articles
top site list. Here is the URL http://articles.top-site-list.com.

I hope you can find one that suits you.

Have fun posting your articles.

Getting your articles published on other people's websites is 100% FREE advertising for life.

[Debbi]

if you're new to writing, I'd suggest starting out by making a blog. They're very easy to get up and running and it gives you the opportunity to adopt a journaling style that many articles don't always use. Also, blogging is a very good way to reach people (search engines love blogs right now) both by providing useful information in the form of your article/post, networking with like blogs/sites, etc.

Although I always suggest purchasing your own domain and using Wordpress (the best blog program out there, IMO) there are other resources you can use, as well, such as Blogger https://www.blogger.com , among others.

Lori has a section about blogging here:

http://www.freelancemom.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=62

Best of luck!

[clennon]

Thanks Debbi for the input.

I've heard about wordpress, I don't have my own domain running yet, this is why I use Blogger for my blog.

What I do is kill 2 birds with 1 stone... I write and submit my articles and use these same articles for my blog.

You may call this lazy or smart... I don't realy care which one you wish to use :D :D I try to make everything work hard for me, instead of me working hard.

Take care,

[Audrey]

Chantal,

Do you do this similtanously, or do you put the articles on your blog first?

[clennon]

Chantal,

Do you do this similtanously, or do you put the articles on your blog first?
I've been writing the article in my blog then posting my articles.
I never realy gave it an order, I just happened to do the blog first.

Probably because I learned how to do a blog first.

[judilynn]

There is also the idea of hiring a ghostwriter. If you have a certain topic you can pay to have someone write the article for you. It would be written for the internet and ghostwriters know all about keyword density and such. Just an idea :)

[UpAndAtEm]

Hi Tracey. It's nice to meet you! You are the second homeschooling AND working mom I've met since I joined the forums about a couple weeks ago! You've got a beautiful family.

I homeschool too. I have three children. My oldest is disabled and goes to public school. I've homeschooled my middle one, now 11, from the beginning. My youngest is 4 and will start kindergarten at home this fall this fall.

In answer to your marketing question, yes, articles can help. What is your business selling? It is best to write about something that has to do with your particular industry because it shows your expertise as a business person.

My company, Up & At 'Em Publications, helps other businesses market their products and services with custom booklets. The advantage of a booklet is that it won't be tossed aside or in the trash like most advertising because it contains valuable information that your customers will want to keep. It also won't be forgotten like so many articles are.

Think about it. How many articles have you read in print or online in the month of June? And how many do you remember? When someone reads your article, your copy has to be strong enough to get them to act as soon as they've finished the article or you've lost them as a potential customer. They'll move on and forget you. This won't happen with a booklet because they keep it and refer to it when they need the information it contains.

If you're going to make articles work for you, you need to have excellent copy writing skills and you need to write many, many articles. The more articles you write the more your name will get out there and the more recognizable you will become as an expert in your field. With a booklet, however, you only need to write it once and it can be used and sold over and over again.

So, yes, articles can help you, but it will take many articles and some very strong copy before you'll see any results from your efforts. If you have the skills and the patience, go for it. It certainly won't hurt. But, I would advise you to think about the possibility of a booklet for your marketing purposes as well. You can never have too many ways to get the word out, and the more that word sticks in the minds of your customers, the better.

If you would like to talk further about what a booklet can do for your business, feel free to pm me. I'd love to help you!

[judilynn]

Kim is absolutely right. You can never have enough out there. Remember the old saying, don't have all your eggs in one basket. Strong copy is a good suggestion. Keyword density should get you search engine rankings. The more you are out there the more people will start to recognize your name and product.

I am the other Home School Mom. Think of all the great articles out there about home schooling. We all know that when we need info we search on it. Think of the keywords you put in when you are searching for something and use that to your advantage :)

BTW do you mind if I ask, what it is you want to write an article about specifically?

[clennon]

Wow... Judilynn, I'm impressed. You deffinitely put a lot into your site, blog and all the rest that you do.

You are a Pro. I really like the way you write and the feminin touch you gave your blog.

My wish is to become half as good as you and I will be very happy.

Take care,

[judilynn]

Wow... Judilynn, I'm impressed. You deffinitely put a lot into your site, blog and all the rest that you do.

You are a Pro. I really like the way you write and the feminin touch you gave your blog.

My wish is to become half as good as you and I will be very happy.

Take care,

Thanks so much! That means so much to me. I have had that site and blog up for only a few weeks, maybe a month and a half at most. Though I have been making websites for over 10 years. I plan to do some pay per click and affiliate marketing on that site. It is my personal site, so it is kind of the one that I use as a "tester". I can try all sorts of things out on there to see how they work.

But it really isn't that much. I use templates and some PLR articles. Yes I do write a lot of the articles, but not all of them. I would run out of time :) With a little time and lots of patience you can do the same thing. If you ever need any thing at all just yell. I love working on my website and I love helping others make theirs also. Right now I am working on getting traffic and SEO, Search Engine Optimization. I am reading all that I can get my hands or eyes on to find out the best way to do it.